ach Braff made his big splash in Hollywood as a medical resident at Sacred Heart Hospital in the hit TV sitcom "Scrubs", since then he has written and directed his own critically acclaimed feature film, Garden State, and now he finds himself as the lead character in Disney's first solo CG animated film.

Chicken Little is Disney's first soiree into the world of CG animation without its longtime partner Pixar, a movie that certainly means a lot to the studio, which only means picking the perfect cast is a must. So for Braff to be cast it is quite an honor, but before he was playing a chicken he was serving it as a waiter, a time he doesn't exactly look back fondly on, but a time that aided his career in ways he probably didn't see coming.

"Of course, I was miserable, but that misery is what helped write Garden State," he said. "I was waiting tables and I was pretty sure I wanted to go back to New York. I was actually up for an Edward Albee play that was happening in Manhattan, 'The Play about the Baby.' It would have involved me being full-frontal nude on stage every night."

Yeah, nude, and he didn't turn it down, he wanted the role, "I wanted it because it was my ticket out of L.A. I thought L.A. wasn't working for me. I wanted the play so bad, I didn't get it, had I gotten it I never would have tried out for 'Scrubs.'"

"Scrubs" is an opportunity Zach looks back on as "the greatest experience ever," but with the recent schedule changes and the fact that the show isn't even on NBC's fall schedule has him a bit frustrated. He does remain optimistic that the show will hopefully see two more seasons as he said, "'Scrubs' will go either just this season, or it will go one more probably is my guess. Then I think I would move into working in just features."

While Garden State really wasn't officially Zach's first film role, it was the film that showcased his talent. So with his name on the rise how exactly did an animated film fall into the mix?

"I put it out there that I wanted to do an animated movie," he said. "I thought it would be fun, I've always watched these movies and I thought it would be great to be part of the Disney lineage of being an animated character. So, when this project came up, I auditioned amongst a lot of people and got it."

Anyone familiar with Zach will quickly notice that his performance in Chicken Little is a bit different when you compare it to the work put in by other big name actors in animated films. Zach virtually hides his voice; he worked on several different accents and ways to bring Chicken Little to life, including some that just didn't work, "Something more of a Barry White and the James Earl Jones area. It didn't work," he said.

This is probably a good thing considering the character he is playing is only about 10 years-old, I don't know how well a10 year-old chicken with the voice of Barry White would play, but the voice soon came to him, "It's basically my impression of a little boy."

Sure, it's his impression of a little boy, but when you are playing an animated chicken how exactly can you relate? Of course, considering Chicken Little is an outcast and shunned as the boy who cried, "The sky is falling!" and we all know actors have their horror stories as they grew up, but Zach's is a little different. He seemed to be able to find ways to fit in, even when he didn't.

"You always hear actors say, 'I was such a nerd; I was a loser,' especially when it's a hot girl. It's like, 'Oh shut up!' They all have that story; it's like, 'Please,'" he said.

"I wasn't into sports, I was a little theater kid, I was auditioning for things in New York City when I was 13-14 years-old. So, while other kids were playing little league I was off trying to get parts in theater. I definitely did my own thing and was a loner in that respect, but I'll tell you what I did," he continued, "I had to find some sort of way to stand out to make friends because I wasn't doing the sports thing. So what I started doing was trying to make people laugh and I started to make friends that way, by trying to crack people up."

That worked with the ladies then right? All women say they love a man with a sense of humor, "They say that now, but when you're in high school they're looking for the damn studly guy!"

Things always change though and Zach seems to have no problem with it, "Now! I never knew it would be so great to be the funny guy," he said with a large grin on his face.

So with the ladies in tow, are they going to be able to fall in love with Chicken Little in the same way? How much Braff is in this chicken?

"There's definitely facial expressions, especially when he's stuttering, a lot of the stuttering stuff I did, when he's looking for the right words," he said. "You're in a booth and you're trying to imagine there is a soda pop strapped to your back, so it's really an exercise in fantasy. You end up doing these crazy gestures… I could see some of them in Chicken Little."

Now that Braff is a part of Disney history, he has had a successful movie and apparently the ladies love him, where does he go from here, what is in the hopper?

"There's been a lot of opportunity for me because of the success of Garden State, a lot of opportunity for me to direct and I have passed on all of it because I don't want to just be a director who directs just because he is lucky enough to have someone let him. I really want to find something that is as important to me as Garden State was, and whether that be something I write, or something I develop or stumble across I'm not sure yet, but I'm not going to try to just crank another movie out. I am going to wait until I find something that's as important to me as that one was."

That said, he does have some things going on, it isn't all quiet on the western front. He does have a movie in post-production, The Last Kiss, which he starred in with a couple of young Hollywood hotties, Rachel Bilson and Jacinda Barrett, and he also did a script rewrite on Eight Track and has a movie in development called Andrew Henry's Meadow.

"Eight Track was my first experience of getting paid to do a rewrite of a script and I don't know where they are with it. It was just a writing gig. Then Andrew Henry's Meadow is a script I am developing with my brother, we co-wrote it. It's set up with John Davis producing at Fox and it's a big fun kid's action movie; I describe it as if Terry Gilliam had directed The Goonies. That's what we wanted to do, a big fun action adventure sort of kids movie. I won't direct that, it's too big. John Davis wants me to direct it, which is very flattering, but I don't feel ready to take on a movie of that scale."

He continued, "It's based on a children's book called 'Andrew Henry's Meadow' and it's about a bunch of kids who runaway from a sort of Stepford Wives in suburbia because they are so bored and they form their own community in this meadow."

Success has certainly found a partner in Zach Braff as he just moved into his thirties. At one point he thought about giving it all up, but as he'll tell you, "You can't set out to do this career choice if you're going to give up easily. If you're going to go for this you have to go, 'I'm going to go for it and I'm not going to give up.'"

Another thing Braff hasn't given up on is chicken, even after voicing one, "I just had chicken for dinner last night, and it was dynamite. When a real chicken starts talking to me I'll stop eatin' 'em."

I don't expect real chickens to talk anytime sooner than pigs will fly, but you can see a "flying" fish and a talking duck, chicken and pig in Chicken Little on November 4th.